First Proclaimed Thanksgiving


Submitted by Deborah Brown Musgrove


Ft. Smith, Ar New Era
November 12, 1879

The President has issued his proclamatin appinting the 27th day of this month as a day of national Thanksgiving. The governors of the different states will doubtless follow and appoint the same day. Never in the history of this nation was there greater cause for national gratitude to Providence. At peace with all the world, this great country is today, more than ever, the hope and refuge of the oppressed and toiling millions of other lands. Boundless prosperity has blest the labors of her people and, with the exception of a single point, the most excellent health prevailed throughout the land. In these blessings, Arkansas, and especially Western Arkansas, shares to an eminent degree. Abundant crops, splendid health, peace and order every where are surely causes enough to offer healrty and sincere thanks for once to a beneficent Providence, the Creator and Ruler of the universe. Let the people honor the call of the ruler of states and the nation.





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